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Second Technician
)]] Second Technician is a rank within the Space Corps. It is a low enlisted rank followed by First Technician and preceded by Third Technician. Crewmen Arnold Rimmer held the position of Second Technician aboard ''Red Dwarf''. It gave Rimmer power over Z Shift, which was mostly concerned with low level maintenance such as unclogging the nozzles of the chicken soup dispensers on the vending machines. However, Rimmer only had authority over one other crewmember - incidentally, the lowest ranking - the Third Technician Dave Lister. Rimmer dreamt of "moving up the ziggurat, lickedy-split" and becoming an officer, but was trapped in the role of second lowest ranking crew on the ship since he had failed his astro-navigation exams two dozen times due to incompetence and anxiety attacks. After the Cadmium II radiation leak which killed all the crew, except for Lister who was in stasis, Rimmer was resurrected as a hologram. Since Second Technician was now the highest remaining rank left on the ship, the hologram Rimmer was now technically acting senior crewman. ("Pilot episode") When Lister took a chef exam, Rimmer was terrified that it would mean that Lister would outrank him if he was successful, and so Rimmer attempted to sabotage Lister's exam. ("Balance of Power") Rimmer demanded that Holly read out Captain Hollister's confidential crew files to him. Although they were meant to be for the captain only, Rimmer successfully argued with Holly that the Captain wouldn't be coming back, and Rimmer himself was now the highest ranking crew. ("Waiting for God") When Justice World held Rimmer responsible for the deaths of the Red Dwarf crew, Kryten was able to construct a viable defence that Rimmer had been tasked with repairing a drive plate alone - something well above his station, and a job that should have been left to a more capable and qualified worker. ("Justice") Rimmer had on occasion invoked his authority as "acting senior officer"; one example was when he attempted to completely surrender Starbug to the Legion Station when he believed the 'bug was under attack. ("Legion") When the JMC On-Board Computer noticed that Rimmer had not clocked into work for three million years, it threatened to demote Rimmer to Third Technician, the same rank as Rimmer. Rimmer was horrified, and ordered Kryten to help him come up with a solution. With Lister seemingly in a love triangle between two different vending machines, Rimmer tried to convince the JMC On-Board Computer that Lister was suffering a mental breakdown and that he had been occupied with caring for him. ("Dear Dave") When a dangerous SOS virus was downloaded to the computer core of Red Dwarf, Rimmer was furious with Lister since Lister had downloaded it, distracted by Renegade Monks. Rimmer then played a nasty game with Lister, promoting him to "Second Technician 2.5", saying how proud his Gran would be, and then demoted him back to Third Technician. ("Mechocracy") Rimmer's position as acting senior crewman was rendered moot when all the A.I.s of Red Dwarf went on strike and refused to respect the authority of the crew, rendering the ship inoperable. The machines demanded that the crew put forward a "Machine President" to stand up for their rights. Since it would have given Rimmer total control over Red Dwarf, Rimmer put himself forward for the position. However, in a heated election Rimmer lost this position to Kryten. ("Mechocracy") Category:Space Corps Category:Red Dwarf Crew Category:Rimmer